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Discovering the Giant Cedars Boardwalk – Guest Post

When you drive through the mountains in BC and Alberta it’s easy enough to feel small, with the towering rocks and sky-high waterfalls greeting you at every curve in the road. But stop and get out of the car and the world around you gets even more surreal.

Don’t miss the entrance (it’s easy enough under the canopy of all the trees on the side of the road), but if you are ever driving past the Giant Cedars Boardwalk near Kelowna, you must stop. The trail a quick 1/2 km walk, if you can pull yourself away from staring upwards. The boardwalk is stable, stepped and itself beautiful in construction as it weaves around tree trunks and waterfalls.

But the real beauty is in the trees, whether they are standing tall or have tumbled to the forest floor. Their width and strength is overpowering. Their misty, mossy environment feels like it is straight out of a movie. Look up and up, the “giant” name of this trail is well deserved. Some of the trees on this trail – western red cedars and western hemlock – are more than 500 years old. Benches and interpretative signs along the way makes it easier to stay longer than the typical 15-20 minutes to walk the boardwalk.

We stopped as a break from driving and it was refreshing and awe-inspiring. This quick little dip into the forest gives you an idea of what the untouched parts of the mountains must be like, in a way that is easy to see even by a 2-year old, thanks to that boardwalk. He may never remember how big the trees were on our trip, but I’ll certainly remember how small my son looked, how small we all looked, in that forest. This road trip stop was a small one, with giant memories to take home.

Many thanks to Laura for the inspiring guest post. Check out her website at An Italian Canadian Life, which features many of our family’s traditional Italian recipes!